Five-Mile City

Five-Mile City is a town in New Mexico, United States. Five-Mile City was founded in 1865, and it grew in size due to its status as a railroad town; it gained its name from Five-Mile Station. The city was built next to the Braswell Railroad, which ran from Texas to New Mexico and from New Mexico to Colorado, and the city expanded as hundreds of settlers moved to the American Southwest.

Foundation and expansion
Five-Mile City was first settled in 1865 by settlers from the eastern United States who had moved to the American Southwest following the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. The settlers constructed Five-Mile Station along a Native American trade route, and they proceeded to build a town next to the trade route; the town was named "Five-Mile City" after the trading post. The town began to expand as more settlers arrived, and more buildings were established, including farms, houses, outposts, saloons, markets, arsenals, and barracks. The two Comanche villages next to the city would be incorporated into the city as the Americans built trading posts next to them, courting their friendship and opening trade with them. The North Side of Five-Mile City was the residential and central area of the city, with the town center and main buildings being located there. Meanwhile, the South Side, located south of the trade route, consisted of a few markets and other buildings, and it was less-populated. The settlers would develop the Indian trade route into a stagecoach route, and they would later begin construction on the Braswell Railroad from Texas to New Mexico.

Braswell Railroad War
On 14 November 1865, violence erupted in Five-Mile City after the railroad's first two stations were completed. The trains on the railroad ran north towards Colorado, but there were several Comanche settlements between Colorado Springs and Five-Mile City. The Americans discovered a sizeable Comanche settlement to the north along the railroad, and Chief Fights With Knives was gunned down by US Army troops and some allied Comanche warriors as he explored the area north of the city. The second clash occurred to the southeast of the city, when American settlers and some Comanche villagers clashed over buffalo hunting rights. American troops would battle small Comanche war parties before assaulting their village, massacring the inhabitants and destroying the main teepee with grenades. The Comanche were forced to disperse, and the Americans were able to continue building their railroad further north and west.